DURBAN - South Africa has one of the highest number of cybercrime victims worldwide which resulted in a loss of about R2.2 billion in 2018. Digital banking crimes also increased from 13,389 incidents to 23,466 in which R262 million was stolen- according to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC).
While the world is focused on the systemic threat posed by the Coronavirus, cybercriminals around the world are poised to capitalise on the crisis by launching a different kind of “virus”.
As more employees are starting to work remotely by the day, companies may eventually face the prospect of functioning with little to no personnel on-site or skeleton crews in IT and other important support functions. The sudden increase in remote work has introduced a new set of cybersecurity risks to organisations.
It is against this backdrop, that both employers and employees need to take the utmost care to protect themselves as well as confidential company information. The cyber threat landscape is vast and no one is immune. And it’s not just big businesses who are vulnerable to the growing incidence of cyber attacks.
Individuals are regularly targeted too with crimes including Phishing, where criminals attempt to trick unsuspecting individuals into clicking on a malicious URL or e-mail attachment to steal their login details which they can then use to gain unauthorised access to the victims' financial accounts.
According to experts, the most common crimes were generally low-tech, such as attempts to trick individuals into revealing their personal information through bogus emails.
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